By Minh Tu Ung
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Social Studies teacher and National History Day (NHD) Behring Ambassador Amy Boehning was the first teacher from Hawaii to spend two weeks, from Aug. 15 to 30, in South Korea as a part of a Korean Fellowship program put on by the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) as well as NHD, which provided first-hand experiences that helped Boehning grow as a teacher.
“The purpose was for teachers from the United States to go to Korea, learn about Korean history, culture, America’s foreign policy and its relation to South Korea and North Korea. So it was an educational experience for teachers,” Boehning said.
The first part of the trip consisted of different workshops, lectures, tours and more activities that allowed her to learn more about South Korean culture. The second part, encompassing the last two days of Boehning’s trip, was the building of a connection between Daegu International School (DIS) and MHS through the NHD program.
Boehning was one of the 28 selected teachers to participate in the fellowship. As she teaches Global Studies, the first-hand experience in another country allowed her to enrich her lesson plan. “I tell my students that if you’re going to teach about the subject, you should experience the subject,” said Boehning. “Korea was my 30th country (that I visited). The culture and the people and the everyday experience is what makes the difference in the world. When I explain things to my students, I’m not telling them something I read out of a book or I watched in a documentary, it’s from personal experiences, and it makes everything real.”
Because schools in Hawaii start earlier than schools in the mainland, Boehning was the only teacher whose students were in session while in Korea, which didn’t stop her from doing her job as a teacher. “I made a video every single day to send back to my students (using) my pictures so that my students could look at what I was doing. So they could see the country from my eyes,” said Boehning.
Not only did Boehning continue to teach MHS students, she also gave lectures to over 130 South Koreans from sixth to 12th grade at DIS in Seoul. Extending her trip, she went as the NHD Behring Teacher Ambassador for the state of Hawaii to help the Korean school build a better foundation for their new NHD program. “Now the school in Daegu is using Mililani High School’s worksheets in their classroom,” said Boehning. NHD Korea Affiliate Coordinator Sharon Gillette, the teacher who invited Boehning to DIS, stated, “We would gladly welcome (Boehning) back. In fact, we talked about her helping judge projects for NHD in Korea.” Through Skype, they also plan on having their students interact and learn from each other’s cultures.
Although it was educational, the trip was also dangerous; while Boehning was there, the tension between North and South Korea was the worst it has been in 26 years. “Two South Korean soldiers on the (Korean Demilitarized Zone) stepped on a landmine and were injured. I would have freaked out if I were to be by myself, and that was what was incredible about this trip. We actually got to see how the South Korean people still interact and still move on from that threat that I would never be able to picture if I hadn’t gotten to experience that,” said Boehning.
This trip was authorized under special permission by Principal Fred Murphy because it was during the school session. He said, “When we help a teacher explore their subject matter, this teacher is becoming more enriched and capable in the classroom. (By letting her go), I am impacting hundreds of students directly. In this case with Mrs. Boehning, she’s becoming more worldly.”
The Korean students still maintain their contact with Boehning through email so that she is still able to assist them with NHD. She has been recommending Hawaii teachers to participate in the program since.
